The Walnut SpeakEasy — Restaurant in Elgin

Huh. Had an “interesting” experience here (just make it to the end of this story, trust me). Friend and I arrived on a Saturday. Okay crowd but not busy, and plenty of servers walking around. We seat ourselves since there was no host/hostess and wait 15 minutes or so. We tell the bartender how long we’ve been waiting, she acts shocked and says someone will be right over. 10 minutes later our server comes and asks us for our order. We tell her we want drinks first and to relax for a little with them since we’ve been waiting so long. So we order two beers (one each) and two waters. 7 minutes later (I had started timing everything a while ago just to see) she comes by with the water but we tell her we’re leaving. She squeals “but your drinks are ready!” There are no drinks in sight. Keep in mind this was two beers only. We see her go down a few tables and I figure she’s helping them before getting our drinks. She and another waitress are huddled over this table like early man discovering fire, and I see the other waitress pick up a beer and immediately know what’s about to happen.

The two of them march toward us and the server who wasn’t ours is holding the glass by the rim (nasty) and proudly proclaims “here’s your drink.” I told her that we had ordered two beers, not one, and I certainly wasn’t drinking some thing that she had taken off of somebody else’s table and then held by the rim. She exclaimed in protest that “no one had drank from it!” I repeated that we had ordered two beers, not one, and that I wasn’t drinking anything that had been sitting on somebody else’s table for who knows how long. I then informed our waitress that we were leaving and to have a good evening. As we were walking out she yelled very loudly behind us in a snarky sing song tone, “have a good night!”

Call me crazy, but I think waiting half an hour for somebody to present you with a beer from somebody else’s table, that somebody not even being the person who is supposed to be your server, makes for a bad experience and that your alleged server probably shouldn’t be snotty with people after that kind of experience. Needless to say, we just walked out and went somewhere else and had a nice time.

Go here if you like to wait when it’s not busy and be handed drinks and food from other...

Went inside to collect an Uber eats order for a customer, went inside at around 9:50pm to collect an order that was already late.. when inside I greeted the first two people available.. two waitresses counting money and tips for the night.. clearly they were done for the night but with nobody else in sight I was hoping I could get some help.. unfortunately, before I could even speak, she waved away and told me to leave her alone that she is done for the night and doesn't care about what I need.. I found that extremely rude, but okay you're done for the night.. got it. I very nicely said "okay" and and stood there for around 4 minutes waiting for someone to talk to about this late order, with two servers and a bar tender right in front of me. I also tried to get the bar tenders attention.. it was relatively slow, so I can't imagine the bar tender was too busy to talk to me, even though I tried. Finally I realized I wasn't going to get anywhere with talking to these people so I decided to cancel the order and walk out... What a waste of time and disrespect.. I see the "please be patient we are short staffed" sign and I respect it fully and will be patient when waiting for an order, but to be disrespected and told to go away and then ignored is something completely different. You earned yourself a bad review miss. That was very rude. I simply can not afford to "attempt" to pick up at this restaurant anymore. They are no service from now on. I certainly hope you wouldn't treat a paying customer like this.. Though I'm sure you do because those tips were looking mighty short young lady. All in all, worst place to pick up as a door dasher or Uber driver.. AVOID AT All COST if you're a driver looking to make money or customer who thinks they will get common...

We visited for our first time, heard good things about the restaurant and the vibe, however we got a front row seat to the worst dining experience of our lives. We ordered 2 drinks along with our two friends, our friends received their drinks, but we had to ask the waitress several times where our drinks were. We had ordered one beer and a mix drink. After 20 minutes of waiting we finally got our drinks and placed the same food order as our friends. They received their food and we were left to wait again for ours. We had to flag down a waitress to ask what was going on with our order. They said there was a mixup and our ticket was lost but they will bring it out shortly. We declined the order as we had waited over an hour for one drink and nonexistent food. The manager had a book full of excuses as did the waitress, but that holds no bearing as the manager should see how their restaurant is operating and adjust as they see fit. There was a lot of miscommunication throughout the whole experience. We weren’t expecting the world from them, and yet still left disappointed. Two...